Just after midnight on “618,” the owner of a small wrench factory in Pizhou excitedly posted a screenshot of his orders on his WeChat Moments: 20,000 household toolboxes were sold in one go, more than the entire sales volume of June last year. No one in the comments section questioned its authenticity; everyone knew that e-commerce had accelerated the struggling hardware industry, propelling it onto a fast track of development. Previously, buying a screwdriver required a trip to the hardware market, facing vendors with cigarettes and fixed, uncompromising prices. Now, with a simple swipe on a phone, information on sourcing from Yongkang, electroplating from Zhongshan, and assembly from Pizhou is all crammed into a single product details page. JD Hardware City has integrated 30 industrial clusters, strictly controlling quality and reducing the return rate to 1.2%. Any factory whose products fail to meet quality standards will be immediately removed from the group. This forces factory owners to remove burrs from their products, even if it hurts costs, because consumers won’t give a second chance. Even more surprising are the people placing orders. Young women in their twenties are buying pink electric screwdrivers for their rented apartments, posting pictures in the comments saying they’re “more stress-relieving than lipstick”; new parents are adding explosion-proof flashlights and escape ropes to their hospital bags, saying, “We’d rather have them collect dust than be blind when we need them.” Family orders have increased from 15% three years ago to over 30%, effectively turning industrial-grade supplies into everyday necessities. The once dusty hardware city now features customer service representatives explaining torque in live streams, with comments like “Her voice is so sweet!”
In terms of price, e-commerce has also significantly lowered prices. Policy-driven centralized procurement on platforms has resulted in angle grinders being one-third cheaper online than offline wholesale prices; factory live-streaming price-cutting events have attracted a large audience, with 500,000 viewers watching, forcing shop owners to “lower the price by two more yuan” on the spot. This way, viewers enjoy the show, and brands gain exposure, making it much more cost-effective than advertising. At the same time, the sourcing and procurement problems that plague SMEs have been compressed to 72 hours by big data, eliminating the need for people to run around searching for suitable suppliers.
Among them, the sales performance of household fire extinguisher kits was the most outstanding, quadrupling, with 80% of buyers being young people aged 25 to 35. The pandemic has made the importance of “safety” deeply ingrained in people’s minds; they casually tossed emergency kits into their shopping carts, checking them out along with snacks and face masks.
The platform launched a “1 Yuan Purchase” promotion for protective accessories, attracting 2 million participants. While “getting a bargain,” consumers also remembered the brand. Industry insiders understand that hardware tools are undergoing a transformation: professional-grade technology is being replaced by consumer-grade bestsellers, cumbersome offline procurement is being replaced by instant online ordering, and after-sales service, price negotiation, and live streaming are all provided in one go. The goal of reaching 2 trillion yuan in industrial e-commerce by 2025, with hardware accounting for a quarter, seems unattainable. However, looking at the bustling scene of this year’s 618 shopping festival, factory owners, while complaining they “can’t keep up,” were simultaneously sending their inventory to JD.com’s warehouses overnight. No one wants to miss out on this wave of development. Thus, “Made in China” is being propelled by countless small wrenches and electric drills, moving towards “Intelligent Manufacturing in China,” bursting with boundless vitality and hope.
